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Goyal woos US investments, co-chairs Indo-US CEO forum

Goyal discusses opportunities for collaboration with US executives, invites investors to increase commercial and trade footprints in India

Goyal woos US investments, co-chairs Indo-US CEO forum
[Source photo: X]

Trade minister Piyush Goyal pitched India as a global manufacturing hub to top executives at US firms and co-chaired the sixth meeting of the US-India CEO Forum alongside his US counterpart, Gina Raimondo, in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

The forum is a joint platform of top US and Indian businesses that develops and provides recommendations to strengthen bilateral commercial ties and expand trade and investment.

During the meeting, US and Indian delegates “reaffirmed their commitment to expanding bilateral commerce and trade, driving inclusive economic growth and innovation, and fostering a resilient bilateral partnership,” a statement said.

Goyal met investors including BlackRock CEO Robert Goldstein; Systems Technology Group chairman Anup Popat; Tillman Holdings CEO Sanjiv Ahuja; C4V CEO Shailesh Upreti, and Janus Henderson Investors CEO Ali Dibadj, a statement said.

Goyal discussed opportunities for collaboration to position India as a global manufacturing hub and invited the investors to increase their commercial and trade footprints in India, while also garnering suggestions and ideas from the leading business experts towards furthering ease of doing business.

Goyal is on a four-day official visit to the US at the invitation of Raimondo.

“Held a productive meeting with the US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, over lunch on the sidelines of the India-US CEO Forum. Our discussions focused on prospects of tech and R&D collaboration in critical sectors such as defence, space, semiconductors, telecom, AI and clean energy,” Goyal posted on X.

“We also discussed opportunities for US investments in upcoming 20 industrial cities in India to foster mutual growth,” Goyal added in the post.

Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran and US defense production giant Lockheed Martin president and chief executive officer James Taiclet were co-chairs of the forum from the private sector between 2023–24.

Incidentally, Lockheed Martin and Tata Advanced Systems Ltd had last month teamed up to set up a maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility in India to support the Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) existing fleet of 12 C-130J Super Hercules tactical airlifters as well as other global Super Hercules fleet.

The delegates also took stock of the forum’s accomplishments, including the launch of the publicly accessible Network for Innovation and Harnessing Investments and Trade for Inclusive Growth between the US and India (NIHIT) platform to facilitate online knowledge sharing and networking among startups and small businesses, the statement said.

NIHIT has so far organized four workshops to promote capacity building and skilling in cybersecurity, digital technologies, and AI, which have been attended by over 1,000 startups, small businesses, and entrepreneurs, it added.

Meanwhile, apart from the Lockheed Martin-Tata deal, the members of the CEO Forum, which represents 22 US firms and 25 Indian companies, also announced collaborations and investments across sectors like technology services, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, AI analytics, and space technology, demonstrating their commitment to advancing US-India commercial engagement.

Jaishankar meets Blinken

In a separate development, external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met his US counterpart Antony J. Blinken in Washington, hours after Iran’s ballistic attack on Israel and discussed the Ukraine war and the West Asia crisis.

Both leaders discussed the US and India’s enduring commitment to deepening bilateral ties, coordinating closely on regional and global challenges, and advancing cooperation on critical and emerging technologies.

Jaishankar and Blinken also discussed plans to expand collaboration on clean energy initiatives to address the global climate crisis.

Blinken noted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s August visit to Kyiv and reiterated the importance of a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.

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